The best coconut cake in New York City

When I am on vacation (especially if it is the holiday season) I tend to indulge, but it has to be worth the calories!   Coconut cake is one of my favorite things.  When it is good, it is amazing and when it is not amazing I find myself asking why did I bother?  Having searched high and low, I found that there are two places in NYC that you should not miss if you love coconut cake.  They are both different in style, so I recommend you try both.

Believe it or not, Mesa Grill has one of the most outstanding cakes I have ever had.  It is not Bobby Flay's throwdown recipe, but a version of it that his pastry chef Clarisa Martino has perfected.  (Sorry to disappoint you Flay fans)

The desserts she has created are ridiculous.   If you like dessert, you should go there and give yourself a treat.  I also recommend the Mexican Chocolate Pudding.  I don't even like pudding, but this will blow your mind.  However, the coconut cake is possibly the lightest and most flavorful coconut cake I have ever tasted.  The cake is moist, the frosting is light and the taste is mmm mmmm good.   I'm not sure how she did it.  When it arrives you will think that there is no way that you could ever finish this either by yourself or with another person.  However I found myself looking at an empty place and was wishing I had some to take in a doggie bag for later.  It will melt in your mouth and you will feel as though you have just gone to heaven.   Clarisa is an extremely talented pastry chef and Bobby Flay is very lucky to have her.

The second place that you should go to if you like coconut cake is on the upper west side.  Good Enough to Eat is a great place for lunch or brunch.  They have one of the best Turkey Clubs ever.   It also has one of the two best coconut cakes in the city.  It is very different, stylistically speaking, from Mesa Grlll, but it is delicious and worth the calories in every bite.  The frosting is like a cream cheese/butter cream frosting with coconut on top.  It is exquisite.

It is also something that you should expect to get a doggie bag for, as it is rich and probably not something you will be able to finish by yourself, especially if you have had a meal there before hand.  The cake is moist and delicious and will linger in your dreams for weeks.

As I said, I love dessert, but it has be so good that I don't care that I have cheated on my diet.  If you go to either of these places, I can almost guarantee that your visions of sugarplums dancing in your head will include some coconut cake.